rubber_stamp_champ

Can anyone help me out with planning the Golden Quadrilateral starting from Delhi?

I'm planning it somewhere around September-October. I need the following information:

1. the route map
2. approximate kilometers for the entire ride
3. Places to stay at the halts
3. Minimum time required for the ride. I'm taking 15 days as if now
4. approximate cost of the entire ride
5. any other that you might want to suggest

Now, I plan to break the journey for each leg into two parts. As in:-

Delhi-Varanasi-Kolkata
Kolkata-Vishakhapatnam-Chennai
Chennai-Dont know where (suggest)-Mumbai
Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi

any changes required???

The ride would be 220. Please refer to my sig for my riding experience.

Suggestions and comments welcome!!!

Thanks!!!

__________________
Live the journey, destination is just a halt!

Aryan

Query Moved and Approved.

__________________
...in search of that perfect world - My Travel Blog :)

aargee

First Congratulations & Good Luck

There're few threads that you need to go through & YOU HAVE TO contact bluevolt as he completed the GQ successfully during Feb 2010 on his Ninja. Here're the links on his ride below. He has neatly logged his ride & I'm sure you'll have 90% of your questions answered.
The Gift A Dream Ride: 12th Feb - 28th Feb 2010 - xBhp.com : The Global Indian Biking Community

15, yes you could do it.

^^^ Is my favourite circle because the Kolkatta-Orissa-Vizag route is terrible & if you start with this route first, then you experience the bad first & then taste the good roads. So I personally prefer this, though many people do the other way from Delhi. I feel this is good enough.

From Chennai stretch, I can help you guide when from AP to TN (via Chennai) - BLR as I live close to NH5 & NH4. As far as I remember Bluevolt did about 800+ Kms run from Bangalore to Vizag on day 1; IIRC it took about 15 hours.

If you halt at Chennai, then you may want to consider doing Chennai to Pune/Mumbai in one day & I think it possible for a person like you.

Good Luck champ!!!

__________________
Patience pays...The Vulture's virtue is patience and the bird always get it's food - Wise man saying

This is not a bakery. I don't sugar coat anything. If you ask for my opinion...then that's what you'll get. Don't be mad when it's not what you want to hear

bluevolt

Hey champ, send me a pm and I will help you with whatever information I can.

That reminds me - I have not finished writing the logs of the last three days of the GQ trip. Aargh! Have to do it pronto...

rubber_stamp_champ

hey guys

thanks for those lovely replies....that surely boosts up my confidence....would keep planning and please frequent this thread...

I need to have all the information before hand

__________________
Live the journey, destination is just a halt!

rubber_stamp_champ

All right, how's this stretch? I mean, comparable to NH8??? or better/inferior to that??

around 1400km do not seem to be a difficult task in one stretch!!!

__________________
Live the journey, destination is just a halt!

bluevolt

1400 kms is very difficult - why do you want to do that when you have 14 days at your disposal. Keep your max to 800 and have enough energy for the next day.

rubber_stamp_champ

yeah...thats right!!


however, can you please tell me about the road conditions...it it easy to maintain speeds above 100, majorly?

also, which is the worst part of the ride and how bad is it??

__________________
Live the journey, destination is just a halt!

bluevolt

There are a lot of roads where you can keep your bike around 100, but you will be be averaging around 70-80. The bad stretch is just before Bhubaneshwar - around 100 odd kms or so. I'm hoping that things might have improved now, but in feb, there was thick slush for a few kilometers, then small rocks on the road on some and then some really narrow roads through the diversion. Rest of the roads are great, though you might find switching from four lane to two in areas between Hubli-Chitradurga, Ahmedabad-Baroda a pain. But the roads are decent there.

I also experienced massive traffic jams starting from Faridabad to Delhi via the badarpur border, but in hindsight, I should have bypassed Delhi and gone directly to Gurgaon from Faridabad.

Try and avoid Calcutta since the traffic might be too much in this summer heat. Just keep going on straight on the highway as you head towards Calcutta and you can conveniently byepass it. Same for Mumbai, try and take the help of some Mumbai xbhp members to give you specific pointers on how to cut through the city. I went through Gorbunder-Panvel.

rubber_stamp_champ

Well I've planned the ride a bit later and not in this blazing summer as I'm not sure if a 220 would be able to sustain such heat for such a long distance!!!

moreover, I'm stuck with a new job, so no leaves as of now...a medical certificate would do wonders after sometime

Till then, I'll plan as much as possible

__________________
Live the journey, destination is just a halt!